Material Transfer Agreements

Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) are used when specimens and samples are transferred between institutions or individuals. Their purpose is provide legal certainty on the transfer of ownership or custodianship. Appropriately written, they will also ensure transmission of necessary documents such as collecting permits that are associated with the specimens, and necessary information, for example as is required under Article 4 of the EU Regulation on ABS.

CETAF and GGBN have both devised standard MTAs to cover three circumstances: Provision of material with no change in ownership (e.g. loan); provision of material with change in ownership (e.g. gift, sale) and receipt of material. Each organisation will have its own version, however, which should be used by staff.